In recent years, neurological disorders like Alzheimer's disease, dementia and Parkinson's have garnered more attention from all sides of the healthcare sector. But, what about the grayer area of traumatic brain injury (TBI)? Doesn't this issue deserve equal attention when more than 300,000 traumatic brain injuries occur each year in the United States? And, it only takes one to lead to a whole host of unsettling effects including headaches, memory loss, irritability, problems with impulse control and even personality changes. Obviously, athletes involved in full-contact football, hockey and boxing put themselves at high risk. But, this applies to a whole list of strenuous physical activities including cycling, skateboarding, basketball, baseball, soccer, etc. In fact, TBI is the leading cause of death in sports-related accidents.

Amarantus BioSciences, Inc. (OTCBB: AMBS), an exciting small cap biotech company out of California, may have the answer. Their therapeutic protein known as Mesencephalic-Astrocyte-derived Neurotrophic Factor, or MANF, has the ability to zero in on a wide range of neurological disorders. The company spent the last two years mastering a version of MANF for Parkinson's disease that could circumvent the side effects associated with levodopa or L-DOPA - the Parkinson's treatment standard. Recently, AMBS issued its first ever shareholder letter stating that it was ready to start tailoring a MANF program around those tragically afflicted with TBI.

This prompted commitments from 11-year NFL Veteran and Pro Bowler Corey Chavous as well as former NFL safety and CEO of The Brewer Group Companies, Jack Brewer, to support the further research of the treatments of traumatic brain injury, including the current work being done by AMBS.

It also motivated Rainbow BioSciences, the biotech subsidiary of Rainbow Coral Corp. (OTCBB: RBCC) and Banyan Biomarkers - the leader in developing in vitro diagnostic products to detect TBI. Both companies are poised to continually collaborate with AMBS on its journey to cure CNS disease. Banyan will assist by developing its simple point-of-care blood test for physicians to detect the presence and severity of brain trauma.

"Based on the results produced through this collaboration, we are excited about the potential of the MANF Program in generating new products to treat concussions and other forms of TBI," said Gerald Commissiong, President & CEO of Amarantus. "While this data is early on in development, we will be looking for innovative approaches to accelerate our TBI development program, while using Banyan's proprietary panel of markers as a key metric in our companion drug - diagnostic strategy."

On June 7, in-vitro cell culture experiments showed that MANF was reproducibly shown to confer neuro-protective properties in various cell death-related pathways. The data prompted AMBS to modulate MANF in patients immediately after suffering a TBI, and in patients who have suffered multiple concussions over an extended period.

"The data shows that MANF has a significant ability to reduce cell death from a variety of insults that simulate Traumatic Brain Injury as we have modeled in multiple assays in our internal laboratories at Banyan," said Dr. Andreas Jeromin, PhD, Senior Director Research at Banyan, "These data give us confidence to move to the next phase of testing to further validate this approach, as well as look at innovative product development strategies to accelerate bringing a MANF-based treatment to patients for TBI."

Let's be honest. If there's one thing this country overvalues, its sports. Western culture never really outgrew its primitive hunger for gladiatorial competition. Just look at professional sports politics. Despite the gargantuan sums of money, these athletes are traded like commodities with people essentially gambling on their lives. Sure, they have fully developed brains, but still, when you have a 250 lb. lineman tackling you head on, it's the impact that becomes the problem.

Recurring concussions and sports-related injuries changed the lives of former Eagles and Patriots running back Kevin Turner, Dave Duerson of the Chicago Bears and former Atlanta Falcons safety Ray Easterling just to name a few. All three now suffer from some form of TBI including dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. In fact, these ex-pros are all part of momentous case now forming against the NFL.

As of May 25, there have been 81 lawsuits filed from a list of plaintiffs that includes 2,138 former players. The files have been consolidated into one master complaint, which was filed in Philadelphia and accuses the NFL of hiding information that linked football-related head trauma to permanent brain injuries. Among the illnesses cited were dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

''The NFL must open its eyes to the consequences of its actions,'' said Kevin Turner, ''The NFL has the power not only to give former players the care they deserve, but also to ensure that future generations of football players do not suffer the way that many in my generation have.''

Chronic Pain Specialist Peter Abachi, M.D. wrote in The Huffington Post that, "The recent suicide of Junior Seau, a well-liked NFL retiree, serves as a reminder of how quickly the privileged life of a professional football player can spiral into something quite different once their playing days are over. The toll on the body and mind from playing a physical and sometimes violent sport can mean living with chronic pain, depression, fighting chemical dependency, and trying to put back the pieces of memory loss. The irony in all of this is that many of these former superstars are struggling with the very same problems that I treat every day when I work with chronic pain patients from the general population."

But, athletes aren't the only ones out there at risk. Combat veterans represent another trouble area. Almost half of the soldiers who fought in Iraq or Afghanistan who experienced a loss of consciousness (LOC) also developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which strongly correlates with chronic pain.

People will always push their bodies to the limit. It all simply underlines the need for an effective treatment. Athletes and soldiers seem almost doomed to run in with TBI or PTSD when they're risking their lives on the fields only to retire with a pain killer or prescription drug dependency causing depression that creates another cycle of pain and requires another coping mechanism and so on. But, even if we can't solve this problem from a sociocultural standpoint, efforts to improve treatment options are already underway and Amarantus is becoming a fast leader to find them.

Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements about the possible benefits of MANF therapeutic applications and/or advantages presented by Amarantus' PhenoGuard technology, as well as statements about expectations, plans and prospects of the development of Amarantus' new product candidates. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including the risks that the anticipated benefits of the therapeutic drug candidates or discovery platforms, as well as the risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to the development of Amarantus' new product candidates, including those identified under "Risk Factors" in Amarantus' most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and in other filings Amarantus periodically makes with the SEC. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements Amarantus does not undertake to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect a change in its views or events or circumstances that occur after the date of this presentation.